The Alco Century Series

Alco’s Century series was perhaps a line developed more from desperation than anything else in an attempt to gain a footing in the locomotive market and better compete with both General Electric and General Motors. The American Locomotive Company (Alco) was a manufacturing
icon for years before it switched from steam power to diesels.
During the steam era the company constructed some of the best and well-known
locomotives to ever roam the rails, many of which still survive today.
These included designs such as the 4-6-4 Hudson, 4-8-4 Niagara,
4-6-6-4 Challenger and the legendary 4-8-8-4 Big Boy (one of which, #4014 is now slated for restoration by Union Pacific). During the early diesel era Alco performed quite well in the market as an early pioneer particularly with the S and RS line. However, it lagged behind in research and development of road-switchers, which resulted in the company exited the market during the late 1960s.

Ironically, Alco itself had first pioneered the road-switcher when it introduced the RS1 in early 1941 but later fell behind Electro-Motive when the General Motors division released its General Purpose and later, Special Duty series. EMD almost immediately became the industry standard
for diesel designs from the time it debuted the EA and FT in the latter 1930s and held this coveted status through the 1980s. However, convinced that railroads would never favor diesels
over steam, Alco (and the other steam builders) did not invest heavily
in diesel research and development for years, which cost the company
dearly in the future. While Alco held second place in the diesel locomotive market for the
first twenty years or so from the late 1930s onward, it was essentially
no contender to EMD.

The company’s outlook would worsen in the 1950s when General Electric not only broke ranks with Alco but also debuted their very own line, its ubiquitous Universal series, which was not only became popular but also bumped Alco into third place in the market. To counter GE’s new models Alco debuted its Century series in the early 1960s. The first was the C420; a powerful, clean design that unfortunately was much more successful with railfans (and still is) than railroads. The Centuries also brought a new numbering system, replacing the straightforward symbols from before (“RS” for road-switcher, “PA” for passenger and A-unit, etc.) with letters and digits, something roughly similar to Baldwin’s numbering system. For instance, in regards to the C420; “C”, of course, stood for Century series, “4” was the axle number (in this case a B-B arrangement), and the last two digits were the horsepower rating.

Later models followed the C420 such as the C425 and C430, although a bit more powerful than the former. The model
certainly had a modern look and with a rather tall nose and
carbody design gave it a beefy,
powerful appearance that was especially true for the six-axle, C-C version.
The most powerful locomotives for their time, the C628, C630 and C636
were true monsters and could certainly lug a heavy freight with
ease. Despite being the most powerful locomotives since Fairbanks Morse's H24-66 "Train Master"model, the Centuries (especially the C636) could just not
compete with EMD and GE. To make matters worse, around the time the six-axle models debuted EMD had launched its SD40, and later
upgraded SD40-2 series, one of the most successful designs
ever built with several thousand rolling off of the assembly line
through the 1980s (most of which are still in regular freight use
today).

Century Production Totals

Model Type

Units Built

Date Built

Horsepower

C-415

26

1966-1968

1,500

C-420

131

1963-1968

2,000

C-424

190

1963-1967

2,400

C-425

91

1964-1966

2,500

C-430

16

1966-1968

3,000

C-628

186

1963-1968

2,750

C-630

133

1965-1969

3,000

C-636

83

1967-1968

3,600

C-643H

3 (Built For SP)

1964

4,300

C-855

3 (Built For UP)

1964

5,500

In all, between the Century series (both four and six-axle models), only a
few hundred were ever built, a mere drop in the bucket to what EMD and
GE were cranking out with their similar designs. The C636 also proved as Alco’s last entry into its long and storied history and the company
sadly closed its doors during the fall of 1968, no longer able to compete
with GE and EMD. Today, Century series models can still be found
roaming the country here and there, especially the four axle units. While many are relegated to museums and tourist lines you can still find a number of the locomotives working freight service on short lines such as the Apache Railway and Livonia Avon & Lakeville. To read more about Centuries and other locomotive from various builders please visit the Diesel Locomotives section of the site, which can be reached from the top of this page.

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